Another Outed Republican

Last week Californian state senator, Roy Ashburn, was arrested for DUI when he left a gay bar (story here). What made this story notable was that the fact that he was a Republican that consistently voted against gay rights while in office.

Somehow stories such as these don't make me feel happy or vindicated. Rather, I feel sad. Most of us over a certain age have passed through a time when we grappled with our sexuality. Try to remember how this was a time when it felt like that the world was arrayed against us. It was a time when our inability to even fathom life as gay either forced us into mental dissonance or into a life filled with depression and self-loathing. Now imagine if those forces were so strong… or if you were a just a little weaker how your life might be if you still lived in that state.

This is Roy Ashburn as well as the others in the recent string political outings including Larry Craig, Foley and perhaps others such as Crist. This phenomenon is not unique to politicians but is a constant mental anguish experienced by millions.

So I think of the lifetime of pain and self-hatred and above all else it saddens me that we live in a culture in which some feel that they are forced to live like that.